A fine feathered festival

Thursday

May 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2007 at 11:55 PM

HUDSON -- Mecia Wright, owner of The Wright Image salon, spends most of her time figuring how to make people more beautiful. But for one week each year, she and her coworkers let their bizarre sides out to play and work some strange transformations on a plastic duck decoy.
Catherine Buday

HUDSON -- Mecia Wright, owner of The Wright Image salon, spends most of her time figuring how to make people more beautiful. But for one week each year, she and her coworkers let their bizarre sides out to play and work some strange transformations on a plastic duck decoy.

Wright’s doctored-up decoys have taken top prizes in the Hudson Community Fest’s “Decorated Duck Contest,” sponsored by the Rotary Club for local businesses. Her ducks have depicted Martha Stewart in jail, Michael Jackson dangling his infant over a balcony, and even international man of mystery Austin Powers, complete with black-rimmed glasses and bad teeth.

Wright said she’s still undecided about what she’ll do for this year’s festival, set for Saturday in downtown Hudson, but she promises it will be on a hot topic.

Once they show off their fine feathers, the decorated ducks will show their speed in a quarter-mile race in the Assabet River between Washington and Broad streets. The fastest duck will win a $250 prize.

“If people don’t want to race their decorated ducks we’ll give them another one to race in its place,” said organizer Tony Loureiro of the Hudson Rotary Club.

The decorated ducks are just part of the fun at this weekend’s Hudson Community Fest, which kicks off with a kids’ singalong downtown at 9 a.m. Saturday. Another duck race will pit 2,500 small plastic “lucky ducks,” each of them numbered, in a river race along the same course used by the decoys, with the fastest ducks winning prizes ranging from $50 to $1,500. Visitors can purchase three ducks for $10, and the proceeds help fund Rotary Club scholarships and programs.

“It’s better odds than betting on the horses,” Loureiro said.

Other highlights of Saturday’s festival include a “Truck Zoo,” featuring more than 15 cool vehicles, including a bucket truck and a hearse, music ranging from jazz to bluegrass, a magician and other entertainers, and yard sales and refreshment sales around town. (See sidebar for a complete list of activities).

Sarah Cressy of the Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the annual festival, said about 30 non-profits use the occasion to raise their profile in the community. The public library has a used toy sale, which has raked in as much as $3,000. The First United Methodist Church has a chicken barbecue.

“The day will be yard sale heaven for anybody who loves yard sales,” she said.

The festival got its start 21 years ago after Cressy was inspired by other similar events in upstate New York, where she once lived. The first one Hudson fest drew only 20 vendors and a handful of entertainers, and “the weather was desperately hot,” she recalled.

But it has grown steadily in the two decades since then, and Cressy said that good weather will draw 7,000 visitors from around Hudson and nearby communities. If it rains, the fair will move to Town Hall auditorium.

Sponsors and vendors help underwrite the costs of Hudson fest, which Cressy said is not a fundraiser, just a big party.

“It involves the whole community and it’s inspired by the community,” she said.